Regular marijuana use can slow blood flow to the brain, says new study

Regular marijuana use can slow blood flow to the brain, says new study

Smoking too much pot can impair memory and spatial recognition, according to new research.

Share

Shares

Copy Link

{copyShortcut} to copy
Link copied!

Updated: 10:28 AM EST Nov 29, 2016

Hide TranscriptShow Transcript

WEBVTT
< If we're going to
do something, lets do it right.>
Republican legislator clel
Baudler is doing an about face
on medical marijuana in Iowa.
< The change of
heart I had is when I seen what
happened to my caucus at the end
of last year. I don't want them
to run around in seven different
directions> So to prevent more
chaos and wasted time, baulder
is proposing his own new
legislation. It would allow for
private production,
transportation and distribution
of medical marijuana oil. And he
would task doctors at the
university of Iowa to decide
what kinds of disease it could
be used to treat.
< If you can show
me that it helps, ill be 100
percent for it>
< I don't believe it's
a good idea to expand it here in
Iowa...> Substance abuse
counselor David Kaptain says
expanding marijuana use is a
slippery slope to bigger
problems. Many states end up
legalizing recreational use of
the drug. And there's a worry.
<ask anyone in treatment as an
adult if marijuana is a gateway
drug .ive made a point of asking
that many times and people just
laugh and they say yea
absolutely it is> but Baulder
promises that as long as he's in
the legislature, recreational
pot use will never be legal in
Iowa.
< If you want to
come to me about smoking it, you
might as well hit the highway,
because it's not going to happen
with my vote, any way shape or

Regular marijuana use can slow blood flow to the brain, says new study

Smoking too much pot can impair memory and spatial recognition, according to new research.

Regular marijuana use may slow the blood flow to a user’s hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory, emotion and spatial recognition, a study from Dr. Daniel Amen’s clinic concluded last week. Researchers studied 26,268 patients from California, Washington, Virginia, New York and Georgia between 1995 and 2015, comparing the brain scans of one thousand marijuana users with non-users.

“The most predictive region distinguishing marijuana users from healthy controls, the hippocampus, is a key target of Alzheimer’s disease pathology,” the research claimed. “This study raises the possibility of deleterious brain effects of marijuana use.”

“The problem with marijuana is that it’s not selective. Not only does it calm the parts of the brain that are overactive, it calms the entire brain—long-term—through a slow and insidious process,” Amen Clinic researcher Dr. Kabran Chapek said in a press release in 2014.

SPECT scans of the brains of regular marijuana users can be seen here.

However, Zach Walsh, associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, told the Clinical Psychology Review that the drug could benefit patients with depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety.

“This is a substance that has potential use for mental health,” Walsh told the publication earlier this month. “We should be looking at it in the same way [as other drugs] and be holding it up to the same standard.”

Walsh and his colleagues examined all studies surrounding the substance and mental health.

"There is currently not a lot of clear guidance on how mental health professionals can best work with people who are using cannabis for medical purposes," he explained. "With the end of prohibition, telling people to simply stop using may no longer be as feasible an option, so knowing how to consider cannabis in the treatment equation will become a necessity."